Motor Synth MK II Electro-Mechanical Desktop Synthesizer

Imagine spinning actual motors to make music—eight custom brushless DC motors whir and hum to generate tones, turning electromagnetic interference into wildly organic waveforms that no traditional synth can touch.

This desktop hybrid splits into two independent motor voices, each powered by four electromotor oscillators offering sine, saw, square, and a unique M wave via inductive pickup. Tweak volume, scale, waveshape, acceleration/brake for portamento-like pitch sweeps, amp and pitch envelopes in modes like ADSR or AR with curve shaping, plus dedicated analog multimode filters (24dB lowpass, 12dB bandpass/highpass/allpass) with drive, resonance, and keytracking. A third digital voice (DCO) adds virtual-analog oscillators, noise, waveshaping, and its own filter/portamento for up to four-note polyphony per voice; route everything to a configurable stereo/mono 1/4" out, with send/return loops per motor voice, 1/4" input for vocoder/gate/sidechain tricks, headphone jack, MIDI in/out, USB, three CV/trigger ins, and poly aftertouch support. Hands-on performance comes via eight pads, four pitch encoders, arpeggiator with note repeat/pattern shift, sequencer, gesture recording, motion engines, three assignable LFOs (five shapes), and mod matrix—all in a sturdy 7.2 lb chassis with clutch function for quick edits.

Players love its one-of-a-kind gritty, drifting tones that evolve alive under your fingers, blending motor rawness with deep analog/digital control for everything from woozy drones to punchy leads—though menu diving for mods takes some getting used to.